👀 Looking Back & Moving Forward with The Sheppertonian 🏡

Gareth Davies: 00:00:47

Hello there and welcome to another episode of the Sheppartonian. This one's a little different.

We've been running the show for almost a year now and I thought it would be the perfect time to look back at the voices and stories that have shaped the show. From local events and businesses to history, music, community groups, it's been a reminder of just how much goes on in and around Shepparton.

So here are some highlights from the year so far. And remember, if you haven't already, make sure you're signed up to the newsletter@theshepartonian.uk so you don't miss what's next. Here we go.

Back in December: 2024

We know today it has been going a long time. When I was a small child, it used to be carols under the big Tree.

And then about 12, 13 years ago, the Shepton District business community, the local traders decided to make it slightly different event and put it on as more of a Christmas market. And since then it's grown and grown and obviously it's got bigger and bigger, bigger. And now it's a huge Christmas market.

In that opening episode, we also heard from Aidan Hope, who transformed the Ferry coffee shop into a bustling community cafe. From a nautical gift shop to 90 seats filled with coffee lovers. It's become one of the village's social hubs.

When I took over at the end of lockdown, it was a nautical shop selling bells and whistles and gifts and things like that. And they had recently put a coffee machine in to try and pull sales into the shop to bring the sale. The shop sales up. Yeah.

And when I took over, it sort of went the opposite way and we started taking the gift shop out and the bells and whistles out and more chairs and tables in until we, you know, we, we have it the completely opposite way. We have four shelves in the window with stuff on and I think it's over 90 chairs that you can sit now within the coffee shop.

In January: 2025

From the Great River Race to everyday walks along the Thames going out and about. Some of us did the. We shot the Great River Race, which was from Millwall to ham, very intense, 3,000 photographs from two people.

We shot the Staines 10K, I think for the fourth time. That was five photographers and that was about five or 6,000 photographs. We do all of this.

We put all the images on our website and then provide them free of charge for everybody. And a usual program that we would have would be to go out and about around the local area. So Bushy Park, Staines Moor, places like that.

We'll walk along the River Thames just to see what you can see. And it's always different, it's never the same.

Also in January, Rhiannon Beacham of Tulip Treasures florist reminded us why sunflowers always make people smile and why you probably don't need a 12 foot bouquet in your living room. Oh, it's definitely a sunflower. Sunflower. Why is that? Yes, Yeah.

I just think at any point of the season they're colourful because the yellow is quite a lovely colour. They're cheerful, they always cheer people up and they're quite big as well, so they always look really lovely in a bouquet. Yeah.

If you pass a primary school, they're always like 12 foot high. Yeah, yeah. You can get really tall ones, so I can buy them nearly as tall as me.

Obviously I'd never used them that tall, but yeah, a bouquet of massive sunflowers would look quite. That would be a bit extravagant. Yeah, yeah, definitely. February was about community challenges and support.

Michelle Eden talked about the hopes and hurdles of the Leyland park hub, which sadly had to close its doors earlier this year. I suppose the biggest challenge we've come across is the fact that we're in a real chicken and egg situation. Okay.

You know, we don't have any facilities here. We've got no history or credibility as a charity, so it's been very hard. You are local people. But we are, we are. Well.

And you know the area, we know that. We know the area. I actually live in Hampton hill. I'm not 20 minutes down the road. And it took us two years to.

To be able to present to Spelthorn Council.

Our idea and the way that we did that is we basically engaged with the park out there, you know, speaking to people, giving out leaflets, engaged with the local councillors and the Spelthorn Business Forum as well.

And also in February, Nerys James from Cruise Bereavement Support explained the vital role of supervision in making sure volunteers are properly supported when helping others through grief.

And then when you couple that with supervision that all volunteers have to have, that too is a form of cpd, if you like, but it's an ethical requirement that all volunteers need to take their client work to a supervisor and if there are issues they need to look at, they've got that support through their supervisor. And we are very, very strong on that notion. There's a strong expectation and a strong requirement that they use the supervision to that effect.

In March, we saw the power of connection through music.

Kelly Stewart told me about the Spelthorne Dementia Choir and how the opening bars of Dancing Queen can light up a room every single time she hears the introduction to Dancing Queen. This lady who normally sits very quietly looks very confused.

She stands, she takes my arm and she dances with me and she twirls around and it's like she's, I don't know, 15 again, she's somewhere in her mind, she is somewhere else and wherever that place is, it's happy. And Mary Soane from Bumps and Babes describes how new parents often find lifelong friends through the group.

A lifeline when you're navigating those early months.

A lot of new parents nowadays, they're used to having a life where they go to work, they come home, they don't necessarily know people where they live.

So coming along to something like this, you meet the mum who lives around the corner and a lot of our bumps and babes mums carry on meeting, they meet outside of the group, they carry on their friendships after they've left the group. April's guests brought performance center stage.

David Bruce from Spelthorn Orchestra reminded us that learning music is like fireworks going off in your brain. Playing an instrument is the best thing that you could do for your brain. There's nothing like it.

When I was teaching before my retirement, I used to say this to the children. I said, which of your subjects exercises your brain the most? English maths. It's music because you're coordinating everything.

First of all, you're hearing the music, you're reading the music, you're working both hands to play your instruments and all of those things. It's like fireworks going off inside your head and your brain gets an absolute maximum workout.

And there's nothing else that compares to playing an instrument. And Steve Oakes from Cast Youth Theatre explained why giving young people a stage literally can help them grow in confidence and creativity.

So we really sort of feel that there is an absolute need for giving young people a place where they can be themselves, where they can let their hair down, where they don't have to worry about embarrassing themselves in front of others because they're in a group of like minded youngsters and just to give themselves that opportunity to shine in an area which may be different to what they're doing at school. Performing arts gives people an opportunity to express themselves. May's episode was a mix of living memory and local life.

Online, Dallas Barnes Hughes shared a vivid recollection of D Day watching the skies filled with planes over Stokenchurch as a child. I remember just before my birthday again, the D Day landings. The whole of the Cotswolds and the children's were covered with airfields.

And we were walking over the village green at Stoke and Church, which is now covered by the M40. And the whole sky was like a load of mosquitoes. There was hardly any sky at all.

It was these gliders and aeroplanes going over and it was a fantastic picture. I can't tell you how wonderful it was. I'd won a rabbit that day too. I remember that. What was the sound like? It was a purring sound.

I didn't really notice it because I suppose aeroplanes have been going over the whole time. And like, what, listening to the we're here and there.

You don't hear them after a certain time, but Mother said, look, Del, that's history being made. So she knew then that that was D Day a year previously, was really the beginning of the end.

And Tony, who runs the Shepparton Now Facebook group, reminded us why pubs remain the places where communities gather, debate and sort things out over a pint. If it was a spot. Well, I think we're sat in it, aren't we? I mean, you like the red light. Yeah, that's a very nice thought. A big red line.

A big red line, Yeah. I think. I think probably more. More things get sorted out in here, probably than anywhere else, to be honest.

Well, you know, pubs are like that, aren't they? Yeah, that's where community problems are aired and dealt with. Absolutely. Going to get the community together. Look after your local pubs.

And that's not just the red line. We have others in the village, as you're all aware, and not all have been successful because we lost. What's the one down in the square?

We've lost a few down in Shepton Square. So places like that, you know, if they open again, they need your support. But for Shepperton now, cool.

You're in a venue with 25,000 people in there, all arguing over the. Arguing over traffic lights and cones. It'd be horrendous.

t back to a football match in: 1972

th of May,: 1972

And it started there as an idea.

th of May,: 1973

We missed two years because of COVID but. Or it would have been 53. July gave us two very different stories.

eam was formed back in, what,: 1971

the first game dating back to: 1881

Oh, and I couldn't agree more. The Sheppartonesses, by the way, was that your fault? That was. Yeah. That's on you. Yes, that. That's all on me. Obviously.

A little nod to the lionesses and you have to put Shepperton in. So, yes, it might be a very long word in the back of the shirt, but it has to. It has to be done.

And Andy Hill shared the unlikely tale of how he and his wife came to buy and restore Doily Car island, once home to the impresario behind Gilbert and Sullivan. We were kayaking. I was doing a charity kayak for the British Heart foundation and that was to kayak the whole length of the Thames over five days.

I'd never kayaked before, so my wife said, you need to get some practice. So she cunningly persuaded me to get a double kayak so that she could sightsee from the back and I could get double the exercise.

And it was really going past the island and I have to say it's credit to my wife, as opposed to me, who's the much more.

The creative person, you know, Royal College of Art, she, she's much more creative and she can see through, you know, the, the boarded up windows and the terrible state of the house. And it was her that said that is the saddest thing that she's seen for what could be a. The most amazing property. And that's what triggered it.

It wasn't anything particular we weren't looking particularly to buy somewhere.

And funnily enough, in August, local historian Nick Pollard delighted us with tales of Richard d' Oyly Carte's pet crocodile escaping into the Thames. Yes, really.

I think one of the interesting ones relates to d' Oyly Carte island, actually, which we can see from where we're recording this, and that's Richard Doyley Carte's crocodile, which he kept in a pool on the island.

It wasn't a very big crocodile, I should hasten to add, but it did inevitably escape at one point, got loose in the river and it was out there for, I think, for a couple of weeks until Richard D' Oyly Carp put up a 20 pound reward, which was quite a substantial sum of money in the late 19th century and a group of local fishermen got together and managed to recapture it.

And Ricky Wallace, chair of Upper Halliford's Patient Participation Group, described the behind the scenes effort to make healthcare more accessible in our community.

One of the things we've been doing is working with some of the local pharmacies to understand the services they provide, who the contacts are, so that we can then we're then going to be looking to publicise that information on the screen that we have in the surgery.

Also, John Curley, who's the vice chair, did a very good piece of work with Trio in Shepperton High street who didn't have access to be able to provide COVID vaccinations. John worked tirelessly with the nhs, which was quite a hard task to make sure that Trio got access to be able to provide Covid injections.

And finally, just this month, Paul, new from Bishop Duppas Bowls Club, gave us a taste of Presidents Day, a mix of fun, competition, afternoon tea and fundraising. Presidents Day is all about fun. It's a fun day.

We start at one, we have a fun game called a spider, where you bowl a bowl with the other hand, you put a pound in the pot and the winner gets half the pot and the rest of the money goes to charity then we have afternoon tea, we have a bit of fun bowling, split into two groups, fun bowling either side of afternoon tea.

And then about 5:30 to 6, the president puts on a buffet display, which most of his family and members contribute to with homemade produce and stuff like that. It's been quite a journey already, hasn't it?

Thank you to every guest who shared their story, and to you for listening, subscribing and supporting the Sheppartonian.

Remember, the best way to keep up with local events and podcast extras is the free newsletter@theheppartonian.uk and if you know someone who deserves to be featured in a future episode, a community group or a local voice, do let me know. Until next time, I'm Gareth and this is the Sheppartonian. See you around, Sam.